Hobby Lobby puts biblical principles before profits

Hobby Lobby owners the Green Family claiming that mandated coverage for certain birth control violates their religious freedom rights

One of the biggest arts-and-crafts chains in the US is incurring fines of over a million dollars a day for refusing to provide coverage of the morning after pill for employees.

Hobby Lobby, owned by devout Christian David Green, is embroiled in a lawsuit to gain exemption from the Obamacare mandate requiring employers to provide the morning after and week after pills as part of their health insurance plans.

The chain, which has more than 500 stores across the US, is refusing to comply with the mandate.

The case is being taken to the Supreme Court after a federal court denied a request to temporarily stop enforcement of the abortion pill mandate.

In the meantime Hobby Lobby faces daily fines of up to $1.3million per day.

Kyle Duncan, General Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is defending Hobby Lobby said: "The Greens will continue to make their case on appeal that this unconstitutional mandate infringes their right to earn a living while remaining true to their faith."

In a recent statement, Mr Green said: "These abortion-causing drugs go against our faith, and our family is now being forced to choose between following the laws of the land that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families.